My "Best of 2013" Awards

Finally, here are my "Best of 2013" Awards. Note that every nominee in different categories are ranked. I previously posted my Top 20 list and that is what really presents the best of the year for me but awards are more to do with each and every category and not exactly the films itself.

Best Film:

1. Her *Winner*
2. Before Midnight
3. 12 Years a Slave
4. Gravity
5. Blue is the Warmest Color
6. Stories We Tell
7. Stranger by the Lake
8. Inside Llewyn Davis
9. Frances Ha
10. Upstream Color

The 86th Annual Academy Awards - My Final Predictions

Well these are my final predictions for the Oscars. Just a few days are left and I am excited to see the ceremony hosted by Ellen DeGeneres. I am glad that two of my most favorite films of 2013 are among the frontrunners. Either "Gravity" or "12 Years a Slave" will get the big prize. Unless they want to award an even better choice that is "Her"! Anyways, my predictions states a split which I never get. One of the awards experts online pointed out this whole thing with movies dealing with race getting best picture while the more technically or artistically significant films getting director award. Not that the Steve McQueen masterpiece doesn't have artistic significant but you get the point. The examples includes Crash, In the Heat of the Night, Driving Miss Daisy. So beside the split which may or may not happen but its most likely that it will, there is a fair chance that supporting actress, editing and one of the sound categories might go to the spoiler picks that I have written down. Well, there is nothing else to say. A great year for films will end with Oscars awarding one of the two great films of 2013. Here are my predictions:

Best Picture:

12 Years a Slave (Spoiler: Gravity)

Best Director:

Alfonso Cuaron, Gravity (Spoiler: Steve McQueen, 12 Years a Slave)

Best of 2013 - My Top 20

No matter what might think of 2013, in my opinion it was a great year for films. I've been against pushing films right at the very end for awards recognition but when you are among such cinematic wonders... who cares as long as you get to see them? So the awards season is about to come to an end with the Oscars soon. I must say that critics were way too soft on many films but then they were the ones who stood by for many great films that surprisingly, the general audience themselves were very critical of. A year of numerous divisive films. 2013 had many films that had to do with the survival of human beings. Both metaphorical and literal, within the confounds of humans themselves or nature. From Gravity and All is Lost to 12 Years a Slave and Captain Phillips. Many good original films and adapted ones. Lots of films about the excess of human misery and lack of morals. Foreign cinema had lots to offer and so did American independent cinema. This is one of those years where I had strong association with each and every film that made my top 20 list. "Her" was a highly personal experience for me, how it provided not only critique of the world and future we are heading towards but relationships and love. The same goes out for Richard Linklater's career best film "Before Midnight". "Blue is the Warmest Color" was another film that revolved around relationships, love, growing up. Look at "Stories We Tell" and how that documentary involves how we look at our lives and loved ones from different perspectives. In short, 2013 provided us with highly daring films both creatively and subject wise. Some masterful studies and pieces of filmmaking and some good experiments. I am very happy to look back at the year and find so much greatness in many ways. 2013 for me will go down in the history as one of the greatest years for films. Below are my top 20 favorite films of the year starting off with some honorable mentions, both in ascending order. And yes, my next and final post about the Best of 2013 would be my personal awards so look forward to that.

Honorable Mentions:-
                                                Beyond the Hills, Blancanieves, Enough Said, The Conjuring, Our Children, Behind the Candelabra, The Past, Nebraska, Ship of Theseus and Berberian Sound Studio.

Countdown (20-11)

20. Mud

Nobody understands the essence of American south the way Jeff Nichols does. His previous film while worked on two different perspectives, offered a great insight on the mindset of a typical middle class American family. Here, we have an almost fairytale story about two boys who comes across a hiding man named Mud in one of the islands of the Mississippi river, who wants to escape with the love of his life. Both Ellis & Neckbone are intrigued by this while at the same time, they have troubles of their own as well. Mud features superb performance from Matthew McConaughey who has been doing great. Not to forget one of the best performance by a young actor in recent years by Tye Sheridan. The film is shot beautiful among the rivers and swamps, great feel of the place. Its an involving study of how this young boy sees people around him fall apart while he desperately tries to find the 'happiness'. Slow paced but beautifully told drama.

Costume Designers Guild Awards 2014

Costume Designers Guild announced their winners today and in a surprising turn, "The Great Gatsby" didn't win. The winner in the period film category was the best picture Oscar frontrunner, "12 Years a Slave". Now that is a twist! Other winners were "The Hunger Games: Catching Fire" for fantasy film while "Blue Jasmine" won for contemporary film.

Best Costume Design - Period Film:
Patricia Norris (12 Years a Slave)

Best Costume Design - Fantasy Film:
Trish Summerville (The Hunger Games: Catching Fire)

Best Costume Design - Contemporary Film:
Suzy Benzinger (Blue Jasmine)

Cinema Audio Society Awards 2014

Cinema Audio Society announced their winners today. Both "Gravity" and "Frozen" won awards for outstanding achievement in sound mixing, live-action and animated. Gravity's closest competition was "Captain Phillips" but it didn't win.

Outstanding Achievement in Sound Mixing – Live Action:
Niv Adiri, Christopher Benstead, Gareth Cousins, Skip Lievsay, Adam Mendez, Chris Munro and Thomas J. O'Connell (Gravity)

Outstanding Achievement in Sound Mixing – Animated:
David E. Fluhr, Gabriel Guy, Mary Jo Lang and Casey Stone (Frozen)

MPSE Golden Reel Awards 2014

Motion Picture Sound Editors announced their winners. Both Gravity and Captain Phillips were the winners for Sound Effects and Foley/Dialogue and ADR respectively. There were also surprising wins for The Great Gatsby, Epic and Dirty Wars.

Here is the complete list of winners:

Best Sound Editing: Sound Effects and Foley in an English Language Feature:
Hugo Adams, Niv Adiri, Ben Barker, Nicolas Becker, Danny Freemantle, Glenn Freemantle and Eilam Hoffman (Gravity)

BAFTA Awards 2014

You know my reactions if you've been following me on Twitter or if you are a part of that particular Facebook group and I am tired so I'll just be short. BAFTA really offered some real surprises, some shocks and left a bad taste in my mouth. I don't get how "12 Years a Slave" wins Best Picture when it only has one other win, best lead actor for Chiwetel Ejiofor? They failed to award it even adapted screenplay which went to "Philomena", which wasn't going to win best British film since "Gravity" was there... which wasn't going to win best film since "12 Years a Slave" was supposed to win... which wasn't going to win director since Alfonso Cuaron deserved that prize.... and on and on this goes.

Anyways, Gravity won a total of 6 awards, the most of the ceremony. Cuaron continues to win, so does the film in technical categories. The biggest shock of the night for me was "Rush" winning editing over "Gravity" and the supposed threat that is "Captain Phillips". Then Barkhad Abdi winning over Michael Fassbender. Of course Lupita Nyong'o failed to win supporting actress as well... which went to the beloved J-Law. "The Great Beauty" won foreign film award over "Blue is the Warmest Color" but frankly, that wasn't a shock. Not as big as the others. "The Great Gatsby" won 2 awards for production design and costumes.

Here is the full list of the winners:

Best Picture – 12 Years a Slave

Best Director – Alfonso Cuaron, Gravity

Visual Effects Society Awards 2014

"Gravity" was the big winner at the VES awards as predicted with its 6 wins. The Disney hit animation, "Frozen" won 4 while "The Lone Ranger" and "The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug" won an award each. Nothing could beat the Oscar frontrunner here in these categories. Over at GoldDerby, I predicted The Lone Ranger to win supporting visual effects award when many were predicting Rush or The Great Gatsby to win. Alfonso Cuaron was also awarded the visionary award by VES for his groundbreaking work.

Here is the complete list of the winners:

Outstanding Visual Effects in a Visual Effects-Driven Feature Motion Picture:
Gravity (Tim Webber, Nikki Penny, Neil Corbould, Richard McBride)

Art Directors Guild Awards 2014

So the ADG awarded the predicted films for achievement in production design. "The Great Gatsby" for period film, "Gravity" for fantasy film and "Her" for contemporary film. These three are also my favorites, each have achieved greatness in their particular categories.

Excellence in Production Design for a Contemporary Film – K.K. Barrett, Her

Excellence in Production Design for a Fantasy Film – Andy Nicholson, Gravity

Excellence in Production Design for a Period Film – Catherine Martin, The Great Gatsby

USC Scripter Award 2014

"12 Years a Slave" was the winner at the USC Scripter award where both the screenwriter John Ridley and author Solomon Northup were awarded. Highly deserving winner as Ridley beautifully transformed the harrowing tale from Solomon Northup's own memoir on to the screen. Remember last year when Argo was awarded? Yup, I've forgot all about that as well.

John Ridley - screenwriter and Solomon Northup - author of "Twelve Years a Slave" (12 Years a Slave)

ACE Eddie Awards 2014

A major upset considering how "Gravity" was the frontrunner in this category but "Captain Phillips" is the winner of the 2014 ACE Eddie Award for best edited feature film (dramatic). The editors guild really went for something I personally wasn't expecting to win considering how "Gravity" was sweeping but well... they love Greengrass and his "The Bourne Ultimatum" was a winner as well previously. In terms of the Oscars, even if "Captain Phillips" ends up winning in this category, it wont really hurt Gravity or 12 Years a Slave's chances to win the best picture prize. In the past, even the non-best picture nominees have won but if a frontrunner wins prizes from guilds, its always an indicator for what will likely happen at the Oscars. The rest of the winners were the predicted ones like American Hustle, Frozen and 20 Feet from Stardom.

Best Edited Feature Film (Dramatic):
Christopher Rouse (Captain Phillips)

Best Edited Feature Film (Comedy or Musical):
Jay Cassidy, Crispin Struthers & Alan Baumgarten (American Hustle)

Best Edited Animated Feature Film:
Jeff Draheim (Frozen)

Best Edited Documentary (Feature):
Douglas Blush, Kevin Klauber & Jason Zeldes (20 Feet from Stardom)

Review: ALMOST FAMOUS (2000)

Cast:
            Patrick Fugit, Michael Angarano, Billy Crudup, Frances McDormand, Kate Hudson, Jason Lee, Zooey Deschanel, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Anna Paquin, Fairuza Balk, Noah Taylor, Terry Chen, Jay Baruchel, Jimmy Fallon, Rainn Wilson, Mark Kozelek, Liz Stauber, John Fedevich and Eric Stonestreet

Director:
                    Cameron Crowe

My Oscars 2014 Predictions (Pre-BAFTA)

Is BAFTA really going to tell us the potential winners or will it further confuse us? We will wait and see but at this point, all of us have theories and imaginable possibilities but we aren't sure. On one hand, a film about slavery made expertly in the most intimate and brutal way possible. These kind of stories, black filmmakers are rarely recognized. Academy has the best chance to do that right now. I mean the film itself is masterful so it deserves the accolades not just for the sentiments or anything. Then we have a film that perfectly shows where the future of films lie. Its a bold experiment on a big level with big studio and big bucks... and a female character leading the story. The story itself is quiet different, it has drama and it has thrills. Visual effects and technical brilliance vs an engaging thriller and affecting drama... how can you say no to that? Both of these are amazing films in their own right and both deserves recognition. Its just a matter of what the Academy would want to award. A brutal and disturbing film or a film they can comfortably watch and embrace for what it represents or is. I am still not sure how it is all going to turn out so I am still, in the pre-BAFTA phase, expecting a tie. If PGA can have a tie with preferential ballot system then why not Academy? This is a tough year and an even more exciting one.

Below are my Oscars predictions for now:

Best Picture:

12 Years a Slave (Will Win)
Gravity (Could Win)
Her (Should Win)

Awards Round-up: WGA, ASC and Annie 2014

So three different awards bodies announced their winners today. Writers Guild Award winners includes "Her" and "Captain Phillips". Not shocking for me personally considering I was expecting Her to rightfully beat "American Hustle". The latter win however comes as a shock in the presence of such films as "Before Midnight" and "The Wolf of Wall Street". I am really hoping that Her wins the Oscar as well.

Elsewhere, American Society of Cinematographers announced "Gravity" as the winner, giving the great Emmanuel Lubezki his 3rd prize after "Children of Men" and "Tree of Life". He is also a surefire bet to win the Oscar as well.

Last but not the least, "Frozen" is your winner for this year's Annie. Congratulations to all the winners.

WGA Awards:-

Best Original Screenplay:
Her (Spike Jonze)

Best Adapted Screenplay:
Captain Phillips (Billy Ray)

Review: STRANGER BY THE LAKE (2013)

Cast:
           Pierre de Ladonchamps, Christophe Paou and Patrick d'Assumcao

Director:
                    Alain Guiraudie

Review: FRANCES HA (2013)

Cast:
           Greta Gerwig, Mickey Sumner, Adam Driver, Michael Zegen, Charlotte d'Amboise, Michael Esper, Grace Gummer, Patrick Heusinger, Josh Hamilton, Maya Kazan, Justine Lupe, Britta Phillips, Juliet Rylance and Dean Wareham

Director:
                   Noah Baumbach

Quick Takes: The Bourne Legacy - The Door - The Secret World of Arrietty

The Bourne Legacy (2012)

Cast:
            Jeremy Renner, Rachel Weisz, Edward Norton, Joan Allen, David Strathairn, Albert Finney, Scott Glenn, Louis Ozawa, Oscar Isaac, Donna Murphy, Dennis Boutsikaris, Stacy Keach, Zeljko Ivanek, Paddy Considine, Corey Stoll, David Asmar, John Arcilla, Lou Veloso, Elizabeth Marvel, Shane Jacobson and Corey Johnson

Director:
                    Tony Gilroy